Locomotive traction motors have been manufactured in North America since the 1950's. Roller bearings have been used with such motors for locating a drive axle in relation to the traction motor and for maintaining spacing for the drive gears. Examples of roller bearing systems are disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 2,742,864, issued to R. B. Enyart on Apr. 24, 1956, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,138,115, issued to M. N. Waite on Jun. 23, 1964. The use of roller bearings has been restricted to Europe where such bearings gained acceptance in the 1960's. Roller bearings have only recently been adopted in Canada. Early units experienced failures, but the problems have been solved and current units appear to be operating in a satisfactory manner.
To date, no successful method has been developed to convert the old style sleeve-type bearing suspension system to the new style roller bearing system. One proposal is to replace the entire traction motor and bearings with new units, or the replacement of the motor housing.
The object of the present invention is to solve the conversion problem by providing a relatively simple method of converting a locomotive traction motor sleeve-type bearing suspension system to a roller bearing system, the method requiring minimum modification to existing equipment and therefor minimum cost.